![Yangtze River Map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Yangtze_River_Map.png)
The Yangtze Patrol, also known as the Yangtze River Patrol Force, Yangtze River Patrol, YangPat and ComYangPat, was a prolonged naval operation from 1854–1949 to protect American interests in the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...
's
treaty port
Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire.
...
s. The Yangtze Patrol also patrolled the
coastal waters
The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
of China where they protected U.S. citizens, their property, and
Christian missionaries.
The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and it plays an important commercial role, with ocean-bound vessels proceeding as far upstream as the city of
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...
. This
squadron
Squadron may refer to:
* Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies
* Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...
-sized unit cruised the waters of the Yangtze from
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
on the Pacific Ocean into the far interior of China at
Chungking
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Coun ...
.
Initially, the Yangtze Patrol was formed from ships of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and assigned to the
East India Squadron
The East India Squadron, or East Indies Squadron, was a squadron of American ships which existed in the nineteenth century, it focused on protecting American interests in the Far East while the Pacific Squadron concentrated on the western coast ...
. In 1868, patrol duties were carried out by the
Asiatic Squadron
The Asiatic Squadron was a squadron of United States Navy warships stationed in East Asia during the latter half of the 19th century. It was created in 1868 when the East India Squadron was disbanded. Vessels of the squadron were primarily inv ...
of the United States Navy. Under the
unequal treaties
Unequal treaty is the name given by the Chinese to a series of treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between China (mostly referring to the Qing dynasty) and various Western powers (specifically the British Empire, France, the ...
, the United States, Japan, and various European powers, especially the United Kingdom, which had been on the Yangtze since 1897, were allowed to
cruise China's rivers.
In 1902, the
United States Asiatic Fleet
The United States Asiatic Fleet was a fleet of the United States Navy during much of the first half of the 20th century. Before World War II, the fleet patrolled the Philippine Islands. Much of the fleet was destroyed by the Japanese by Februar ...
took control of the operations of the Yangtze Patrol.
In 1922, Yangtze Patrol was established as a formal component of the United States Navy in China.
In 1942, at the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the Yangtze Patrol effectively ceased operations in China because of the limited resources of the United States Navy, which needed the patrol crews and their ships elsewhere in fighting Japanese forces throughout the Pacific.
Following the end of World War II, the Yangtze Patrol resumed its duties in 1945, but on a more limited basis with fewer ships during the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
. When the
Chinese Communist
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
forces eventually occupied the Yangtze River valley in 1949, the United States Navy permanently ceased operations and disbanded the Yangtze Patrol.
Operations (1854–1949)
19th century
1854–1860
As a result of treaties imposed on China by foreign powers after the
First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
(18391842) and
Second Opium Wars (18561860), China was opened to foreign trade at a number of locations known as "
treaty ports
Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...
" where foreigners were permitted to live and conduct business. Also, created by the treaties was the doctrine of
extraterritoriality
In international law, extraterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations.
Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually cl ...
, a system whereby citizens of foreign countries living in China were subject to the laws of their home country.
Most favoured nation treatment under the treaties assured other countries of the fact that the same privileges would be afforded to them as well, and soon many nations, including the United States, operated merchant ships and navy gunboats on the waterways of China.
1860–1900
During the 1860s and 1870s, American merchant ships were prominent on the lower Yangtze River, operating up to the deepwater port of
Hankow
Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers whe ...
inland. The added mission of anti-
piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
patrols required U.S. naval and
marine landing parties be put ashore several times to protect American interests. In 1874, the U.S.
gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.
History Pre-ste ...
, , reached as far as
Ichang, at the foot of the Yangtze gorges, from the sea. During this period, most US personnel found a tour in the Yangtze to be uneventful, as a major American shipping company had sold its interests to a Chinese firm, leaving the patrol with little to protect. However, as the stability of China began to deteriorate after 1890, the U.S. naval presence began to increase along the Yangtze.
20th century
1900–1920
In 1901, American-flagged merchant vessels returned to the Yangtze when
Standard Oil Company placed a steam-powered
tanker in service on the lower river. Within the decade, several small motorships began hauling
kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
, the principal petroleum product used in China for that company. At the same time, the United States Navy acquired four Spanish vessels (the gunboats , , , and ), which it had seized in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
during the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (cloc ...
. These vessels became the core of the Yangtze River patrol for the first dozen years of the 20th century, but they lacked the power to go beyond
Ichang onto the more difficult stretches of the river.
and were the first American gunboats built specifically for service on the Yangtze River. The
Mare Island Naval Shipyard in
Vallejo, California
Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to th ...
built them in 1913. The U.S. Navy then had them disassembled and shipped to China aboard the American
steamer ''Mongolia''. The
Kiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai reassembled them and put them into service in 1914.
Later in 1914, both vessels demonstrated their ability to handle the rapids of the upper river when they reached Chungking, which was more than from the sea, and then went further to
Kiating on the
Min River. In 1917, the U.S. entered
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The U.S. rendered the guns of ''Palos'' and ''Monocacy'' inoperable to protect Chinese neutrality. After China entered the war on the side of the
Allies, the U.S. Navy reactivated the guns.
In 1917, the first Standard Oil tanker reached Chungking, and a pattern of American commerce on the river began to emerge. On 17 January 1918, armed Chinese men
attacked ''Monocacy'' and she was forced to return fire with her 6-pounder gun. Passenger and cargo service by American-flag ships began in 1920 with the
Robert Dollar
Robert Dollar, also known as Captain Robert Dollar (1844–1932), was a Scots-American industrialist born in Bainsford, Falkirk, Scotland. The title "Captain" was honorary and he was called the "Grand Old Man of the Pacific". Both were bestowed ...
Line and the
American West China Company. They were followed in 1923 by the
Yangtze River Steamship Company, which stayed on the river until 1935, long after the other American passenger-cargo ships were gone.
1920–1930
In the early 1920s, the patrol found itself fighting the forces of warlords and bandits. To accommodate its increased responsibilities on the river, the United States Navy constructed six new gunboats in Shanghai during 1926–1927 and commissioned them in late 1927–1928 during the command of Rear Admiral
Yates Stirling, Jr.
Yates Stirling Jr. (April 30, 1872 – January 27, 1948) was a decorated and controversial rear admiral in the United States Navy whose 44-year career spanned from several years before the Spanish–American War to the mid-1930s. He was awarded ...
to replace four craft, originally seized from Spain during the Spanish–American War, that had been patrolling since 1903. All were capable of reaching Chungking at high water, and all year-round. Collectively referred to by the U.S. press as "the new six", and were the largest, and next in size, and and the smallest. These vessels gave the Navy the capability it needed at a time when operational requirements were growing rapidly.
In the late 1920s,
Chiang Kai-shek and the
Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...
created a volatile military situation for the patrol along the Yangtze.
1930–1942
After the Japanese took control of much of the middle and lower Yangtze in the 1930s, American river gunboats entered into a period of inactivity and impotence. During the early-1930s,
National Revolutionary Army took control of much of the north bank of the middle river. The climax of hostilities occurred in 1937 with the
Rape of Nanking
The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...
and the sinking of ''Panay'' by the Japanese. The
USS ''Panay'' incident was the first loss of a U.S. Navy vessel in the conflict which would soon become
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Just prior to the
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
, most of the ships on the Yangtze River Patrol were brought out of China, with only the smallest gunboats, ''Wake'' (the renamed ''Guam'') and ''Tutuila'' remaining behind. ''Wake'', at Shanghai, was subsequently captured by the Japanese. ''Tutuila'', at Chungking, was turned over to the Chinese. When the other gunboats reached
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
, the Yangtze River Patrol was formally dissolved when, on 5 December 1941, Rear Admiral Glassford sent the message, "COMYANGPAT DISSOLVED". Subsequently, the evacuated ships were all
scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
, or captured with their crews and imprisoned by the Japanese, after the fall of
Corregidor in mid-1942. ''Luzon'' was later salvaged and used by the Japanese. was sunk in battle on 3 March 1942 and ''Mindanao'' was scuttled on 2 May; ''Oahu'' was sunk in battle 5 May 1942.
During different periods of time, Naval and Marine Corps personnel, who were in the patrol, were eligible for either the
Yangtze Service Medal or the
China Service Medal
The China Service Medal was a service medal awarded to U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel. The medal was instituted by Navy Department General Order No. 176 on 1 July 1942. The medal recognized service in and around China before ...
.
1945–1949
After the surrender of Japan, some patrols on the river were resumed in September 1945. A few days after
Japan's surrender
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ( ...
,
Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, commander of the
United States 7th Fleet
The Seventh Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of t ...
, sailed south aboard to rendezvous with
Task Force 73 and continue on to Shanghai. However, they were delayed due to a large
typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
and the river being swept for
mines. They finally proceeded up the river and arrived in Shanghai on 19 September 1945, with the first
Allied ships in over three years. The American
flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...
included the command ship (USS ''Rocky Mount''), two
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...
s, four
destroyers, twelve
destroyer escort
Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships.
Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...
s, and many
PT boat
A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the war ...
s and
minesweeper
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
History
The earliest known usage of ...
s along with a British naval contingent of three light cruisers, six destroyers, six destroyer escorts, and some minesweepers. In November the new
heavy cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...
joined the unit.
![USS NASHVILLE CL-43, Yantze River Patrol, Oct](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/USS_NASHVILLE_CL-43%2C_Yantze_River_Patrol%2C_Oct._1945.jpg)
When the Chinese Civil War finally reached the Yangtze Valley, in 1949, the U.S. Navy permanently ceased operations on the Yangtze River and officially disbanded the Yangtze Patrol.
Yangtze River Patrol gunboats
File:NavalReserveYantic.jpg, (1874)
File:USS Elcano (PG-38).jpg, (1902-1928)
File:USS Villalobos (PG-42) at Hangzhou, China, during the 1920s (NH 67127).jpg, (1903-1928)
File:USS Monocacy (PR-2) at Nanking, China, in 1932 (NH 68196).jpg, (1914-1939)
File:USS Penguin (AM-33).jpg, (1923-1941)
File:USS Asheville PG-21.jpg, (1926-1927)
File:1920s_Yangtze_River_Patrol_0059_a.jpg, (1926)
Image:USSLuzonPG-7.jpg, (1927-1942)
File:Tutuila (PR 4).jpg, (1928-1937)
File:USS Mindanao (PR-8) in port, in the 1930s (NH 60512).jpg, (1928-1941)
File:USS Tulsa (PG-22).png, (1929-1941)
File:USS Oahu PR-6.jpg,
(1934-1941)
File:Japanese gunboat Tatara 1942.jpg, Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
ship ''Tatara'', formerly
(U.S. Navy service
1927-1941)
File:USS Eaton (DD-510) underway at sea in September 1964 (NH 107258).jpg, (1945)
File:USS St. Louis (CL-49) off San Pedro, California (USA), on 5 October 1944 (19-N-72219).jpg, (1945)
Popular culture
* The fictional USS ''San Pablo'', the Yangtze Patrol
gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.
History Pre-ste ...
in
Richard McKenna's well-known 1962 novel ''
The Sand Pebbles
''The Sand Pebbles'' is a 1962 novel by American author Richard McKenna about a Yangtze River gunboat and its crew in 1926. It was the winner of the 1963 Harper Prize for fiction. The book was initially serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Po ...
'', set in 1926, was modelled on the , a 31-year-old vessel originally captured from Spain during the Spanish–American War in 1898. In many respects, it resembled design features of the later 1928 gunboats. McKenna served aboard one of these newer river gunboats a decade after the time of his novel. The 1966 film ''
The Sand Pebbles
''The Sand Pebbles'' is a 1962 novel by American author Richard McKenna about a Yangtze River gunboat and its crew in 1926. It was the winner of the 1963 Harper Prize for fiction. The book was initially serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Po ...
'' was based on the novel.
*
William Lederer, the author of the 1958 novel ''
The Ugly American'', served on the gunboat USS ''Tutuila'' around the same time as McKenna.
*
Kemp Tolley, an officer who served as
executive officer of the gunboat USS ''Tutuila'' in the 1930s, wrote ''Yangtze Patrol'', a well-received history of the patrol.
* Actor
Jack Warden
Jack Warden (born John Warden Lebzelter Jr.; September 18, 1920July 19, 2006) was an American character actor of film and television. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Shampoo'' (1975) and '' Heaven Can Wait' ...
was an enlisted sailor with the Yangtze Patrol in the late 1930s, before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
See also
*
China Marines
The term China Marines, originally referred to the United States Marines of the 4th Marine Regiment, who were stationed in Shanghai, China from 1927 to 1941 to protect American citizens and their property in the Shanghai International Settlement ...
References
Sources
*
* {{cite book , title=Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China , publisher=Bluejacket Books, Naval Institute Press , last=Tolley , first=Kemp , year=2000 , location=Annapolis, Maryland , isbn=978-0-87021-798-2
External links
USSPanay.org Webpage concerning the Yangtze Patrol, USS ''Panay'', and the ''Panay'' incident"Chinese Pirates", February 1932, Popular Mechanics*
ttp://www.oocities.org/Vienna/5047/yangpathistory.html The Yangtze Patrol and South China Patrol – The U.S. Navy in China: A Brief Historical Chronology''Uniforms of the United States Navy in China 1920–1941'' by Gary Joseph CieradkowskiInside the Archives: The Yangtze River Patrol Collection
Yangtze Patrol U.S. Navy 1935 (YouTube documentary video)) in the film, ''The Sand Pebbles'' (Yangtze Patrol – U.S. Navy Chow and Recipes)]
Military units and formations of the United States Navy
Yangtze River
China–United States relations
Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
Riverine warfare